By all measures, the 2021 Conference Committee pulled off another very successful conference.  The December 6-9, 2021 event was the 27^th annual conference and featured four days packed with a field trip to a modern CO₂ flood, a Tuesday and Wednesday AM agenda with updates on U.S and worldwide carbon capture storage (CCS) projects, government incentives (like 45Q)  and policy updates.  Wednesday afternoon was the first session ever held on the challenges of carbon capture and storage (CCS) when injecting and overpressuring reservoirs using the large volume water disposal experience of the oil and gas industry.  Thursday sessions featured a number of CO₂ EOR and carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) projects.  The growing number of reservoirs amenable to CCUS are rapidly growing with the recognition of the presence of residual oil zones in an expanding number of basins around the U.S. and world.

This conference showed a remarkable recovery from the Covid-challenged Conference held 12-months earlier.  200 persons were present this December for one or more days of the event and another 20 attended virtually.  The year before the ratio of virtual-to-physical attendees was reversed with only 15% attending in person

The varied backgrounds of attendees has been a noted feature of this conference.  Putting the right folks in the same room and reception halls has always been 50% of the objectives of the conference.  This year the mix included Business Development / Financial (12 attending), Exploration / Production (82), O/G Services (52), Media / Marketing (5), Gov’t/University (23), Land/Mineral Owner (3), Research/Non-Profit  (12), Environmental (9), and Consulting (27).

The vast experience of the Permian Basin’s CO₂ industry is the reason for the Conference’s location in West Texas but the audience comes from around the U.S. and world to rub shoulders with the experience represented in the audience. Fifteen internationals came to Midland, 205 were from the U.S. with 18 different States represented.  Texas was first of course but with 55 attending from out-of-Texas.

A wide cross-section of the newly emerging CCS/CCUS industry was represented along with the mature CO₂ EOR industrial companies.  It is clear that many new companies are beginning to form for the growing capture, transportation, and injection volumes that are being planned.  The sponsoring entities of the conference are also broadening out from its legacy companies serving the CO₂ capture and EOR industries.  To that end, the committee would like to recognize the sponsors here as most of which were active on the planning committee:  Advanced Resources International, Arcadis, Burk Royalty, Culberson Engineering & Construction CCI), Denbury Resources, Elysian, Enhance Energy, Enhanced Oil Recovery Institute (WY), Hunt, Guillot & Associates, KinderMorgan CO₂ Company, Mitsubishi, Oxy, R K Hall and Associates, Rockall Energy, Society Petr Engineers (PB Section), Trimeric Corporation, Trinity Midstream, Vintage O/G Advisors, Visit Midland, Wackowski Consulting, and Wehner CO₂ Consulting (Caprock Carbon).

The other half of the objective of the Conference is to provide a platform for both the latest news and best practices being used in the CO₂ industry.  The new ideas and practices presented each year have to pass the field trial test phase   Each year it forms the basis for case history and presenter selection.  Their presentations for the last 12 years are archived here and are available for download under the presentation tab.  To help offset the cost of maintenance of the website, we make available all but the last conference slides for free.  A nominal subscription price of $75 allows access to those latest talks.

Enhanced production totals, reservoir characteristics, and project parameters for active CO2 EOR operations in the U.S. as of end-of-year 2019.

The purpose of this survey is to provide a comprehensive status report of active CO2 EOR projects in the U.S., as of end-of-year 2019. This survey provides the first update of CO2 EOR project data since the final publication of the Oil & Gas Journal (OGJ) EOR Survey in 2014.

The 2019 U.S CO2 EOR survey shows that incremental oil recovery from CO2 EOR in the U.S. has held steady at approximately 300,000 barrels of oil per day. A total of 3.0 Bcf per day of CO2 is purchased for CO2 EOR, including 1.0 Bcf per day from “industrial” sources, which represents an increase of 30% over the last seven years.

Carbon management, in the form of CO2 capture and storage, is the most viable pathway to meeting significant carbon emission reduction targets over the next several decades. This survey demonstrates the value and potential of CO2 EOR to the overall carbon management strategy in the U.S.

Periodic updates will be made to this survey to include the latest CO2 EOR project data available. This publication is intended as a public resource for petroleum and energy industry stakeholders and is offered free of charge by ARI. The next survey update is anticipated for Fall 2021.

Latest Update Date: 04-29-2021

The planning team for the 26^th Annual CO2 Conference is extremely pleased to officially announce the details of this year’s conference.

As you know, we are a conference dedicated to tackling the many challenges of CO2 flooding, CCUS, CCS, and then publicizing the best practices our industry utilizes in CO2 applications. Most folks in our industry know the Permian Basin is the world leader in those field-based technologies and the tools and practices used. We also know the world keeps moving and maybe our Conference can assist in helping companies get more of the oil from their reservoirs.

This year’s conference was especially challenging. The COVID pandemic created resistance for airline travel and large group meetings and changed the way conferences like ours evolved.  We had a virtual audience for the most part but also had our headquarters in Midland (the George Bush Convention Center downtown) as a physical networking option. Getting folks together to find and develop new project business has always been a goal of our Conference so we were reluctant to entirely abandon the physical interaction objectives of the Conference.

We are also an event that realizes that our hydrocarbon industries need to figure out a way to better minimize our environmental footprint. The area we chose to emphasize is reducing CO2 emissions. We can help do that by illustrating the value of CO2 EOR in permanently storing CO2 while producing oil.

If we can help companies capture emitted CO2, compress it, and pipeline it to the World’s oil fields, we have a unique role there as well. The pressures to reduce CO2 emissions have done nothing but grow since we started our annual EOR Carbon Management Workshop in 2003.

Finally, we like to pick out a couple of promising field-deployed tools and methods that we can highlight each year to help with the continuing CO2 challenges ahead. We did that with our first-ever virtual CO2 Field Tour this year.

This year’s agenda for the Conference week included the interrelated subjects of CO2 EOR, CCUS/Carbon Management, CO2 reservoir cyclic injection, and residual oil zones (ROZs) exploitation. The hard-line between CCUS and EOR is blurring now and was a strong feature of this year’s agenda in our 18th annual Carbon Management Workshop.

The Conference week plans called for starting on Tuesday morning, December 8th, and continuing thru Thursday afternoon (10th). We headquartered and coordinated virtual and in-person presentations from the new Bush Convention Center. Tuesday called for our annual EOR Carbon Management Workshop addressing the rapid recognition of CCS and CCUS roles in new project planning. We updated the ongoing demonstration projects, exposed many future project plans, and addressed the new and ongoing legislative and policy initiatives including the amended 45Q tax credit. The timing of the Conference in December was perfect for assessing what the presidential election may do for (or to) our CO2 business and we had speakers to opine on the subject.

On Wednesday, we continue the Workshop followed by a sandwich lunch and air the virtual field trip starting that afternoon. That evening, we had our main conference week reception co-sponsored by Kinder Morgan CO₂ and the Permian Basin Section of the SPE, and with our site host, the Permian Basin Petroleum Museum.

On Thursday, December 10th, we kicked off the theme sessions. We had some speakers already committed to focusing principally on our long-standing emphasis of CO2 EOR case histories – both U.S and worldwide. We also included a summary talk on the Tuesday and Wednesday sessions. We had a summary talk on the status of CO2 in the U.S., and new findings related to the horizontal well San Andres play. The play is still learning landing zone and completion lessons but has grown to where it is producing over 50,000 bopd. The technologies responsible for this new “play” were addressed along with the evolving processes needed for stimulation of the lateral wellbores. We’re keeping an eye out for the play’s possible evolution to CO2 EOR and CCUS in these ROZ greenfield regions.

Below is a summary of the entire conference week activities.

THE ENTIRE CO2 CONFERENCE WEEK – December 8-10, 2020

“This is where the field and office come together to make great projects happen.”

Tuesday Carbon Management Workshop

7:15 am Check-in

Bush Convention Center (BCC)

7:45 am Session I Carbon Mangement Workshop

New Developments in Policy, Legistation, and Regulatory Guidance

11:45 am Luncheon Keynote

Keynote speaker TBD.

12:45 pm Session II Carbon Management Workshop

New Developments in Policy, Legistation, and Regulatory Guidance

5:45 pmAdjourn (No Reception)

Wednesday Carbon Management Workshop & Field Tour

7:15 am Check-in

Bush Convention Center (BCC)

7:45 am Session III Carbon Mangement Workshop

CCUS & CCS Project Planning Underway

11:45 am Luncheon Break

Luncheon Break & Adjourn to Virtual & Physical Field Tour

12:45 pm Field Tour

Local Field Trip to Two Selected Service Companies (Live and PreRecorded)

5:30 pm Evening Reception

Permian Basin Petroleum MuseumSponsors: Kinder Morgan CO₂, SPE-PB Section

Thursday Theme Sessions

7:15 am Check-in

Bush Convention Center (BCC)

7:45 am CO₂ Theme Session I

U.S. and International CO₂ EOR Case Histories

11:45 am On-Site Luncheon

Keynote Speaker: Mike Nasi on “Power Market Reliability: An Updated Look at Integrated Wind and Solar with Thermal Plant Decommissioning”

12:45 pm CO₂ Theme Session II

2020 CO₂ EOR Survey Updates & Additional CO₂ EOR Case Histories

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2020 Agenda Details Short Cuts

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Carbon Management Workshop

Field Tour

Theme Sessions

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2020 Conference Tickets

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The net proceeds of the Conference go to the SPE Section for scholarships and to UTPB where we continue to endow an Engineering professorship. Over the years, the sponsors and our attendees have allowed us to contribute nearly $600,000 to the SPE scholarship funds and we have now contributed just under $300,000 to the professorship in the nine years we have been contributing.

The conference planning committee realizes that a virtual conference will be economically challenged. Attendees like yourself are vital to making all of this work and we thank you for your long support and especially for this year. We have warned our recipients of the net revenues this year may be a bust and they are encouraging us to continue to work for our industry through these tough times.

Our committee has always recognized that austerity needs to be considered and we have worked hard to give various forms of value back to our sponsors and attendees. We have discounted the virtual conference fee and are leaving the in-person registration fees approximately the same this year. We do have hotel room blocks set up to try and save our attendees some on their travel costs if they travel to Midland. We will have transportation available to and from the Wednesday evening reception site back to the DoubleTree hotel across the street from the new Convention Center.

We feel that no other conference expressly caters to the companies busy with CO2 flooding and CCUS. We hope that you will again share your organization’s key role with our audience and look forward to seeing you at this year’s event. If you have questions regarding any of this, please feel free to contact us via the contact form below.

Sincerly,

Steve Melzer

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Your Organization

Comments/ Subject(s) you would like to see covered

Dear Past Attendees and Friends,

The 26^th Annual CO₂ Conference, Dec. 8-10, is entering new territory. It will be first-of-a-kind for us to produce a hybrid, in-person/virtual, event. As we work through the details, we want to introduce our preliminary program plans and gauge your response.

The CO₂ Conference committee, encouraged by our loyal sponsors not to skip this year, has worked to adapt our conference to how our work lives have changed, while meeting our two steadfast conference objectives:

• Expose the field-tested case histories and best practices of the CO₂ world, and
• Facilitate interpersonal and intercompany networking designed to grow the industry.

The Conference committee believes we can accomplish the first objective in this COVID-19 era; however, our second objective is a challenge when considering the limited travel and interaction that we expect to exist in December.

Details are still being formulated, but it is clearly time to let you know what is under consideration so you can hold the date if you agree the conference still meets your informational needs.

Plans:  The Conference kicks off on Tuesday, Dec 8, from our home base at the Bush Center in Midland and with a networked-in complementary Houston facility at the University of Houston.  In addition, we are working to have another “node” in Calgary.

Each node will interconnect, alternating between speakers at different nodes and sprinkled with remote speakers video conferencing from their homes or offices.  All presentations and panels will live stream with a “to-be-selected” software platform.

Preliminary Program:  Tuesday we will explore Carbon Capture utilization and Storage (CCUS). As you are likely hearing, CCUS is a hot topic these days.  New projects are in planning, and legislation is under consideration in D.C. and various States – all intended to encourage CO₂ capture with some form of utilization. There is so much activity around this subject that presentations are planned all day Tuesday and part of Wednesday morning.

A slight variation to our virtual platform occurs on the afternoon of Wednesday (Dec 9) when we stick our necks out a bit to visit two or three field shops in the Midland/Odessa area.  We are selecting companies with advancing technology and equipment to see what they have, and to hear how their technology and equipment are being used in the field.  We will have to limit the actual bus and field facility participants, but we plan to live stream for those unable to personally attend. There will be more details on the bus tour within the next three months.

Thursday (Dec 10) is our CO₂ Flooding day.  As you recall, this is our most popular day, and with the agenda addition of EOR/CCUS project planning, we are expecting high interest again. We will address the status of the CO₂ supply market since so much has changed in that world in the past several years and, especially, this year.  Some international field projects are either underway or just about to be implemented. We hope to present those as well.  An India project talk and a China CO₂ EOR summary presentation are already scheduled.

Registration:  You can imagine that the committee’s efforts planning this year’s agenda are more intense than in past years. We are anticipate participants, not physically present at the Bush Center or Houston/Calgary nodes, wanting to pick and choose their preferred talks or panels. To accommodate, we are selling individual tickets by session; two in the a.m. and two in the p.m.  A ticket acquired in advance will be needed for conference log in.

As the agenda takes on a final look, we will activate the registration site, probably sometime in October.  But, if you want to sign up for an early-bird all-day ticket, the www.CO2Conference.net website will have the registration portal available in mid-September.

If the conditions dictating our new format change by mid October, we will default to our previous in-person conference format.  However, with early-bird tickets, you will be all set regardless of any changes that come.

Thank you, from all of us, for your past support of the Conference.  Rest assured we are working toward a Conference that will provide value to your work by keeping you current on EOR/CCUS, field applications and CO₂ flooding.  We would love to hear back from you to let us know if we are on the right track by filling out the contact form below.

Sincerly,

Steve Melzer

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The 25^th Anniversary edition and 2019 CO₂ Conference was conducted during the week of December 9^th at the sparkling new Bush Convention Center in downtown Midland, Texas located at the heart of the Permian Basin.  The Conference week covered all subjects related to CO₂ including CO₂ EOR, Carbon Capture Utilization and Storage (CCUS), cyclic gas injection, and the emerging commercial exploitation of Residual Oil Zones.  For the first time, the practical aspects of cyclic gas injection were included in the agenda topics since much of the technology for huff n’ puff projects stems from the knowledge accumulated within and related to the body of CO₂ injection projects.  The attending audience professionals associated with the Conference and operating the growing number of CO₂ EOR projects are expanding their expertise to the growing body of cyclic injection projects in the unconventional reservoirs.  The Midland location of the Conference week makes it especially germane to the folks seeking practical experience and actual data from field-tested projects.  The objective of the Conference Week is to help implement more and better field projects by disseminating the practical lessons being learned.  The presentations are available on this website for this current and past conferences.

Monday was devoted to the Carbon Management subject and all the new thinking related to CO₂ capture and geologic storage.  45Q tax credits took center stage with project planning – some even very large 100 million to billion-dollar projects needing to capture their emission streams and find a subsurface storage site for capture streams.

Tuesday featured an all-day CO₂ field trip to the SACROC flood and surface facilities operated by Kinder Morgan CO₂ about 90 minutes east of Midland.  This is the longest-lived CO₂ flood in the world and is still making >28,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd) and storing huge volumes of CO₂ while doing so.  The recent recognition of a thick zone of residual oil beneath the field that contains as much as 2 billion bo promises to make the project continue another 10 years on top of the 45 years of CO₂ injection to date.

The organizers of the Conference were extremely excited to present on Wednesday, Dec 11th, the first-time airing of a short course on the subject of natural and induced transmissive fractures.  The evolution of horizontal well drilling technologies has illuminated a dramatic increase in the ability to both detect and witness the effects of the fractures on well production.  High water cuts, altered properties of the oil, and sour oil and gas production are just three of the effects of stimulating into large-scale, fluid-conductive natural fractures.  The diagnostics used to detect the fractures were addressed along with several case histories from the Permian Basin and around the world as part of the full-day agenda.  Vertical natural fractures have generally gone unnoticed in the age of vertical wells so insights as to their occurrence, properties and effects were rare in the past and are now available for the first time.

The Thursday and Friday morning sessions provided the ever-popular focus on International and U.S. CO2 EOR case histories, cyclic gas injection projects, and an update for folks on the 650-well horizontal ROZ, play in the San Andres formation of the Permian Basin.  These sessions are unique in that they offered field best practices for the design and execution of new and expanding injection project opportunities.

You can easily navigate to all of the newly available presentations via the 2019 agenda page.